J Vet Sci.  2012 Jun;13(2):145-152. 10.4142/jvs.2012.13.2.145.

Pathotyping avian pathogenic Escherichia coli strains in Korea

• Jeong YW
• Kim TE
• Kim JH
• Kwon HJ

• KMID: 1376188
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4142/jvs.2012.13.2.145

Abstract

To examine the genetic background of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) that affects virulence of this microorganism, we characterized the virulence genes of 101 APEC strains isolated from infected chickens between 1985~2005. Serotypes were determined with available anti-sera and median lethal doses were determined in subcutaneously inoculated chicks. The virulence genes we tested included ones encoding type 1 fimbriae (fimC), iron uptake-related (iroN, irp2, iucD, and fyuA), toxins (lt, st, stx1, stx2, and vat), and other factors (tsh, hlyF, ompT, and iss). Twenty-eight strains were found to be O1 (2.0%), O18 (3.0%), O20 (1.0%), O78 (19.8%), and O115 (2.0%) serotypes. The iroN (100%) gene was observed most frequently followed by ompT (94.1%), fimC (90.1%), hlyF (87.1%), iss (78.2%), iucD (73.3%), tsh (61.4%), fyuA (44.6%), and irp2 (43.6%). The strains were negative for all toxin genes except for vat (10.9%). All the strains were classified into 27 molecular pathotypes (MPs). The MP25, MP19, and MP10 pathotypes possessing iroN-fimC-ompT-hlyF-iucD-tsh-iss-irp2-fyuA (22.8%), iroN-fimC-ompT-hlyF-iucD-tsh-iss (21.8%), and iroN-fimC-ompT-hlyF-iss (11.9%) genotypes, respectively, were predominant. Redundancy of iron uptake-related genes was clearly observed and some strains were associated with higher mortality than others. Therefore, strains with the predominant genotypes can be used for diagnosis and vaccine.

Keyword

avian pathogenic Escherichia coli; genotype; serotyping; virulence genes

MeSH Terms

Animals
Bacterial Proteins/genetics/metabolism
Chickens
Escherichia coli/*classification/genetics/*pathogenicity
Escherichia coli Infections/epidemiology/microbiology/*veterinary
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial/physiology
Phylogeny
Poultry Diseases/epidemiology/*microbiology
Republic of Korea/epidemiology
Virulence

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Accumulation of virulence genes and evolution of MPs in avian pathogenic E. coli. According to the virulence gene frequencies among the MPs the hypothetical steps of virulence gene acquisition were illustrated.

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